The Futtock

Actionscript 3.0 has been around for a while now and it is time I got my head around it. I purchased a book for this very purpose. Why purchase a book you might wonder when anything can be googled, from tutorials to samples?

I have found in recent years, that I can tackle just about any programming language by simply googling any problem and finding the solution. This is great, but I never learnt any of it. I got the job done, but I never remembered the code so I could use it from memory again in future. This is because there is little or no interaction with the code. When learning code from a book, however, you are forced to copy the code samples by hand onto the computer. Doing this helps you remember the details of the code. It forces you to learn the code as typing it is a pain, but it makes you remember.

So I bought Learning Actionscript 3.0 A Beginner’s Guide by Rich Shupe with Zevan Rosser. I went at this from the beginning as though I had never written any code before in my life. It is amazing the things you learn even when you read about things you thought you already knew.

AS3 is not AS2+. It is new. It is like AS2 but so is Javascript or even PHP. This is why I am pleased I went back to the start and chose a beginner’s guide. This is not a book review but I will say that the book is very good for a beginner.

So what is the point if this post? I wanted to tell you the importance of books and learning and not just copying and pasting. I also wanted to point out that AS3 is a cousin of AS2 and not an upgraded version. I also wanted to lay the way for more AS3 posts as I learn it.

Bookmark to: